The Academy will reimburse all district-level administrator attendees of Nevada County School Districts for the following expenses: Thursday night lodging at the Nugget Hotel (group rate), coach airfare, airport parking, auto travel to airport, or to Reno, taxi from Reno airport to the Nugget Hotel. There is no reimbursement for rental cars or use of district vehicles.

Reimbursement claims must be submitted by February 19, 2019.

Our Speakers

Suhail Farooqui is the founder and CEO of K12 Insight, the leading provider of technology and expertise that helps school administrators effectively engage their stakeholders and build a culture of trust based on authentic two-way dialogue.

K12 Insight's solution is predicated on the fact that public schools face a deficit far worse than one of fiscal resources — and that is the deficit of trust. With social media and school choice disrupting the world of K-12 education, educational leaders and school boards nationwide are struggling to find their footing. K12 Insight's solutions help school systems adapt to these new realities and lead the conversation, instead of merely reacting.

Suhail presents regularly at conferences and seminars nationwide, including those sponsored by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) and National School Boards Association (NSBA). His essays on key public education issues have been published in journals such as AASA’s School Administrator, TASA’s INSIGHT and NYSCOSS’ CouncilGram.

Previously, Suhail was a senior manager at MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), where he led the development of innovative solutions for real-time alerts to solve complex decision-support system problems. He started his career at Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB), where he worked as a research scientist exploring the application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and micro-gravity measurements to the discovery and development of oil wells.

Suhail holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Patrick Leonard is the Chief Operating Officer of MIDAS Education. He brings nearly three decades of experience in K-12 Education. He started his career as a high school English teacher and basketball coach for 18 years before becoming an education technology executive. Patrick has as served as a VP of Curriculum Development, VP of Business Development, Regional Manager of Sales, and Director of US Sales.

In his role as a basketball coach, Data was a key element in making informed decisions, and the data was available and nearly in real time! But as an English teacher, data was not readily available, and in most cases, data was obsolete by the time is was disaggregated to the classroom level! In his role at MIDAS, he is focused on helping to solve that problem to give educators the data they need, when they need it, and how they need it!

In every role, he has held one, very basic belief: kids are individuals, and teachers know them best. The goal is to provide the resources, training, and tools to help teachers help kids!

Robert Neu

Rob is recognized as a leader in bold education reform initiatives in equity, personalized learning, and closing opportunity and achievement gaps. He has more than twenty-seven years of experience in public education as a successful teacher, coach, administrator, and leader; including ten years as superintendent of schools in Michigan, Washington State and Oklahoma. In addition, he spent four years in the private sector as vice president of marketing for a computer consulting firm in Northern Michigan.

During his time as superintendent of schools, Rob led the charge in transforming school districts from the status quo of a select and sort system traditionally designed for the select few, into inclusive learning systems for all students regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or socio-economic status. As superintendent he remained steadfast in the belief that every child can succeed, and that there is no such thing as student failure, only system failure. He is currently traveling the United States as an independent education and leadership consultant coaching school districts and education solution providers to design inclusive learning systems and processes that transform school district culture to personalize and individualize student learning and ensure student success, for all students.

Rob has presented at several national and international conferences on the topics of equity, social justice reform, and school culture transformation. He has been recognized for his work in education leadership and contributions to education diversity. He has served on several national education boards and remains active in education leadership advisory today.

Robin Glenn, MA, LPC, CSC, MAC

Robin is the Co-Founder and CEO of BASE Education, an online prevention and intervention program that addresses the ‘Whole Child’. Her previous positions include At-Risk Student Specialist, private practice therapist for adolescents and their families, Treatment Coordinator for intensive in/outpatient teen programs, and Research Specialist in clinical trials for adolescents with addictions. Robin continues to train law enforcement, school administrators and faculty, and medical professionals, on issues pertaining to at-risk youth. Her experiences drew her to Social Emotional Learning, and continue to fuel her passion of wellness and innovation. Ms. Glenn earned her MA in Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology, and School Counseling from the University of Colorado, Denver. She is a licensed professional counselor, certified school counselor, and a master addiction counselor.